Accomplished educator, Marva Baird is a ‘Special Person’

Jun 23, 2013 News

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“For ten consecutive years, I had 100 per cent passes in History and Social Studies. I felt so good about myself because I enjoyed what I was doing. I also taught English, and most of the times the pass percentages were high —I’ve always believed that if you’re doing something, you must put your ‘all’ into it…give it your best!”

By Leon Suseran

Born at Charles Place, New Amsterdam, Marva Agatha Morris-Baird recalled her enjoyable childhood days, “because we had lots of things to do—we played on the streets.” She enjoyed playing cricket, rounders and other village games. Those were the days of lots of bush cooks “and of course, we put two stones close together and put the pot on it and from the bedroom

window, my mother or one of our neighbours would ‘direct the operation’ because we had three cottages in the yard, and that was a Saturday afternoon activity.”
She added, too, that back then, the children of the village were always kept occupied, whether it was through attending sewing or knitting classes.
“I attended knitting classes and music lessons and did sewing in school.” Young Marva was also a ‘Brownie’ in the Girl Guides as well as a Lionette with Martin Pereira. She was also a dedicated Sunday School teacher in the Lutheran Church.
Marva Baird attended All Saints Anglican School, followed by the Berbice Educational Institute (BEI), after which she decided to enter teaching.
“My father wanted me to do nursing, but I couldn’t handle blood and all of that, so I preferred to teach”. She started in that field at the age of 17 at the Mission Chapel Congregational School in the town.
That school was moved into the Vryman’s Erven Community High School in 1977. During her stint there, she recalled working with the weaker students and taught remedial classes, under the guidance of her “mentor”, the late Landomae Fraser.
“You get so much satisfaction after maybe a month or so—these children who didn’t know anything or very little, you can get them to write a paragraph and do some simple sums; that was good for me.”
She also taught craft there, including making paper mache.
“We made animals with wires and newspapers—Mr. Chichester was the Education Officer at the time and we had a workshop with him…”
The students benefitted from all this work and succeeded at the Secondary Schools Proficiency Exams (SSPE) after which they were transferred to BEI where they entered the CXC Programme, while others started their work study programme at Old Smokey, National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Henry’s Workshop and the Region 6 Democratic Council (RDC).
“They had a feel of the real world, so they were able to perform a little better.”

Prior to her entry into the Teachers’ Training College, Mrs. Baird enlisted in the National Service at Port Kaituma in 1982.
“That was a unique experience”, she recalled. “We had to weed every day and some mornings we did Physical Education and after breakfast, we weeded and after lunch ,we rested for two hours and we had to go out on the tarmac to do military drill.”
She then attended the University of Guyana (UG) and obtained her Bachelor of Social Science Degree, majoring in Sociology, after which she started out as a Senior Mistress – teaching History, Social Studies, and English Language at the Berbice High School (BHS).
“For ten consecutive years, I had 100 per cent passes in History and Social Studies. I felt so good about myself because I enjoyed what I was doing. I also taught English, and most of the times the pass percentages were high —I’ve always believed that if you’re doing something, you must put your ‘all’ into it…give it your best!”
Mrs. Baird had a lot of enjoyable and fun moments in teaching—scary ones too, as she recalled a prank that her students at BHS pulled one day at work, and she got the shock of her life.
“They would imitate me when I was walking down the corridor and one time, I had my register on my desk, in my own office, and when I opened the register, there was this green snake—a rubber snake—looking at me”, she said with a laugh. “I asked who did it and they said ‘nobody’.”  ”I let the incident pass, because they were first formers and they were from my class…and they did my work!”
“I get so much satisfaction when I see the exam results and the children whom I

have taught and I see the good grades that they got. I feel good about it and feel good about myself… that I have not wasted time. Teaching has its challenges, but nothing that I cannot cope with… and I have been coping for 36 years.” She became Headmistress of Berbice High School in 1999 after which she retired in November 2003.
After retirement, Mrs. Baird taught at the Adult Education Association (AEA) in New Amsterdam and then decided to open her own private school, Tiara’s Academy in 2005. She noted that the school has been doing very well.
“I have been getting good results. We have quite a lot of adults—people who work, so we gave classes going up to 7 o’ clock in the night.”
Mrs. Baird is still actively educating young minds today and teaches Office Administration, English Language, Principles of Business, and Social Studies, as well as Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) subjects such as Sociology 1 and 2 as well as Caribbean Studies at her school. Her school enjoys 86 per cent passes with Grades 1-3.
Having spent quite a number of years in the education system, our ‘Special Person’ chose to comment on two ‘hot’ issues in the sector. Speaking about corporal punishment (CP), the veteran educator stated that she never depended heavily on it; instead, she employed the use of alternative measures and they worked.
“I never really liked the idea of CP—I was given some good lashes in school, but…While at BHS, we found other ways of punishing them—detention. For instance, when I became Headmistress, sometimes we had quite a number of late-comers.”
She recalled putting those late-comers to work in the school yard.
“I would take my seat under the landing, so as they come in through the gate, after the bell was rung—I gave them the cutlasses—and told them to weed from here to there (indicating a small area) and the pretty misses, I would make them put grass in the wheelbarrow and fetch it. One week after this initiative, the number of late-comers reduced from180-plus to 12!”
Commenting about automatic promotion, whereby students are promoted to higher levels whether or not they pass their exams, Mrs. Baird noted that she went through that while she attended schools.

“We used to refer to those students as ‘walking classes’, because they knew they would be promoted whether they worked or not—[they] just relax, so I don’t think they should be promoted automatically…let them spend another year—feel embarrassed…that used to be helpful.”
She remembered calling in the parents at BHS and asking for their assistance, which helped a great lot.
She also bemoaned the absence of guidance and counseling in schools today.
Mrs. Baird advises teachers today to be firm but friendly with the children.
“There is a line which should not be crossed—you don’t ever get on a first-name basis with your children, because you won’t be able to control them. At the same time, you must be approachable.” She had this type of relationship with her four children too.
So what about retirement days for this mom of four, with a similar number of grandchildren?
“Some of my hobbies today include cooking, baking and tending to my flower garden. I love to cook…and bake—I love to experiment with new recipes and I am fascinated by recipe booklets. Once I go into a bookstore, I head for the part where they have cookery books.”

Our ‘Special Person’ stated, too, that while visiting the New Amsterdam Market on Saturday mornings, “I head down to the back of the fisheries, and if they have anything [flower plants] I don’t have—I buy. My mother loved flower plants and we had a lot of them in our gardens. Since I was small, I was accustomed to tending to flowers.”
But Marva Agatha Morris Baird will be remembered most fondly for her contribution to the education system – helping both weak and strong students, and loving  the satisfaction she felt, even if it meant waking up at 3am to mark her students’ work books.

 

 

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